First Presbyterian Church
Ripley Tennessee
April 4, 2010
Easter Sunday
Isaiah 65:17-25
John 20:1-18
When you Least expect it!
One of our favorite television shows is America’s Funniest Videos. This is the show that features home movies of people doing really stupid things. No matter what kind of mood I find myself in, if I find that show in re-run on a cable channel somewhere, I am just about guaranteed a laugh. If I don’t get a laugh, I am sure to at least feel better about myself by comparison with those who not only videoed themselves, but sent it in for the whole country to see how stupid they can act.
That show always cheers me up. I think one of my favorite types of videos feature total shock or a dramatic surprise. I have seen people jump out of birthday cakes; some have popped up out of garbage cans. I saw one episode where, and I am still not sure how they did this, a big stock pot was on a table. It was full of something like home made soup. As the woman approached the big old pot to stir it
Suddenly this hand reached up out of the pot of soup and grabbed the woman by the arm! The woman then proceeded to have a cow!
Surprises are also sweet sometimes. On the internet, there is a whole collection of home videos showing GI’s returning home and surprising family members. I looked at a few that were really special.
These showed fathers coming home from war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Each of these many videos featured many of the same things. The soldier would stand outside the door of a classroom in an elementary school. On the video you could hear the classroom in the background. The soldier would be announced to the children as a “special guest”. I would become abundantly clear as the soldier walked slowly into the classroom exactly which child was his. The look of complete surprise spread across the face of each child as each reunion unfolded.
I watched probably about a dozen of these two to three minute video clips before I realized that I had teared up… and I didn’t even know these people!
It was this special and emotional surprise, one that Mary never expected, that came crashing down on her, surrounded her and then lifted her high again.
Scripture page 2
151Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!"
"Woman," he said, "why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?" Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him."
16Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher).
17Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.' "
What was Mary truly looking for in the garden that morning? What do we look for? What is it that Mary hoped to accomplish? What was her motivation?
In times of stress like this, we often behave out of sheer instinct. Mary was drawn to the final resting place of Jesus. A point that many scholars make is that the burial was already finalized. It was done. Jesus was gone and was not coming back. He was in the ground and it was final.
I think Mary probably couldn’t sleep after what she and the others had witnessed. I think that many of us have had experiences similar to Mary’s. I have buried both of my parents. I am fortunate that both are buried in Covington. I have felt that inexplicable pull…back to the grave side. I have yielded and returned at various times back to both.
My parents are buried in two different cemeteries. I have had long conversations over the head stones of each. In all instances, I found myself going back to God in prayer and ultimately asking for the pain to be removed, that my loved one be at peace, that I be given assistance in understanding life in all its variations. Thankfully, neither of them ever snuck up behind me while I was sitting there!
I returned each time looking for peace.
One scholar writes “At first, Mary does not know that Jesus stands before her. Scholars call this the "non-recognition" motif, i.e., the disciples' inability to recognize Jesus in his glorified state (cf. Luke 24:15-16). John 20:14 may be another example. Alternatively, more ordinary reasons could account for Mary's failure to recognize Jesus: emotional distress, tears, darkness, etc. Weighing in favor of a theological motive is the significance of Mary's being called by name.”
You see…Mary can be a metaphor for us.
Another pastor writes “Mary's moment of recognition comes with the mention of her name. She thus acts out the truth of John 10:3-4: "He calls his own sheep by name... and the sheep follow him because they know his voice." Using someone's name, especially a first name, assumes familiarity, intimacy, and closeness. Jesus' followers have a relationship with their Lord that goes well beyond a formal or institutional connection. Mary fails to recognize Jesus visually. Moments later she recognizes him aurally.
The Lord has many ways of reaching out to us. He reaches out in the form of events such as wonderful occasions or horrific tragedies. I believe the Lord reaches out to us, speaks to us, shows us and communicates with his children even through the earth and animals in the earth. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit reach out to us and through us in the days of our lives.
Christ has defeated death. That is what the celebration of Easter focuses on. The cornerstone of the Christian religion rests on that fact. Mary was even told at the grave side, by the messiah Himself; do not hold on to me.
Christ did depart from us and resides in Heaven. But the meal we have before us now is His special sacrament, prescribed by Jesus himself to his followers. This meal is to be taken in remembrance of not only the person of Jesus of Nazareth, but of what he has done for each one of us.
We take this meal remembering that vivid surprise that Mary had at the grave side of Jesus. With this meal let us also anticipate that surprise. Let us, in the manner prescribed in his last meal with his disciples, that this is NOT the end. We are to observe this meal until he returns.
The meal is about personal reflection on the nature of your relationship to Christ. The meal is about reflection of the great deeds done for you by God the father through the resurrection. This is about the grace we can experience shown by Christ and delivered by the Holy Spirit.
As you take the elements, given for you by Jesus who is the Christ, allow Christ to have a renewed place in your life; allow the Holy Spirit to work in and through you. By living of your life in a righteous way, that is an honorable way to remember, to refresh and to live.
AMEN
Ripley Tennessee
April 4, 2010
Easter Sunday
Isaiah 65:17-25
John 20:1-18
When you Least expect it!
One of our favorite television shows is America’s Funniest Videos. This is the show that features home movies of people doing really stupid things. No matter what kind of mood I find myself in, if I find that show in re-run on a cable channel somewhere, I am just about guaranteed a laugh. If I don’t get a laugh, I am sure to at least feel better about myself by comparison with those who not only videoed themselves, but sent it in for the whole country to see how stupid they can act.
That show always cheers me up. I think one of my favorite types of videos feature total shock or a dramatic surprise. I have seen people jump out of birthday cakes; some have popped up out of garbage cans. I saw one episode where, and I am still not sure how they did this, a big stock pot was on a table. It was full of something like home made soup. As the woman approached the big old pot to stir it
Suddenly this hand reached up out of the pot of soup and grabbed the woman by the arm! The woman then proceeded to have a cow!
Surprises are also sweet sometimes. On the internet, there is a whole collection of home videos showing GI’s returning home and surprising family members. I looked at a few that were really special.
These showed fathers coming home from war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Each of these many videos featured many of the same things. The soldier would stand outside the door of a classroom in an elementary school. On the video you could hear the classroom in the background. The soldier would be announced to the children as a “special guest”. I would become abundantly clear as the soldier walked slowly into the classroom exactly which child was his. The look of complete surprise spread across the face of each child as each reunion unfolded.
I watched probably about a dozen of these two to three minute video clips before I realized that I had teared up… and I didn’t even know these people!
It was this special and emotional surprise, one that Mary never expected, that came crashing down on her, surrounded her and then lifted her high again.
Scripture page 2
151Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!"
"Woman," he said, "why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?" Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him."
16Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher).
17Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.' "
What was Mary truly looking for in the garden that morning? What do we look for? What is it that Mary hoped to accomplish? What was her motivation?
In times of stress like this, we often behave out of sheer instinct. Mary was drawn to the final resting place of Jesus. A point that many scholars make is that the burial was already finalized. It was done. Jesus was gone and was not coming back. He was in the ground and it was final.
I think Mary probably couldn’t sleep after what she and the others had witnessed. I think that many of us have had experiences similar to Mary’s. I have buried both of my parents. I am fortunate that both are buried in Covington. I have felt that inexplicable pull…back to the grave side. I have yielded and returned at various times back to both.
My parents are buried in two different cemeteries. I have had long conversations over the head stones of each. In all instances, I found myself going back to God in prayer and ultimately asking for the pain to be removed, that my loved one be at peace, that I be given assistance in understanding life in all its variations. Thankfully, neither of them ever snuck up behind me while I was sitting there!
I returned each time looking for peace.
One scholar writes “At first, Mary does not know that Jesus stands before her. Scholars call this the "non-recognition" motif, i.e., the disciples' inability to recognize Jesus in his glorified state (cf. Luke 24:15-16). John 20:14 may be another example. Alternatively, more ordinary reasons could account for Mary's failure to recognize Jesus: emotional distress, tears, darkness, etc. Weighing in favor of a theological motive is the significance of Mary's being called by name.”
You see…Mary can be a metaphor for us.
Another pastor writes “Mary's moment of recognition comes with the mention of her name. She thus acts out the truth of John 10:3-4: "He calls his own sheep by name... and the sheep follow him because they know his voice." Using someone's name, especially a first name, assumes familiarity, intimacy, and closeness. Jesus' followers have a relationship with their Lord that goes well beyond a formal or institutional connection. Mary fails to recognize Jesus visually. Moments later she recognizes him aurally.
The Lord has many ways of reaching out to us. He reaches out in the form of events such as wonderful occasions or horrific tragedies. I believe the Lord reaches out to us, speaks to us, shows us and communicates with his children even through the earth and animals in the earth. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit reach out to us and through us in the days of our lives.
Christ has defeated death. That is what the celebration of Easter focuses on. The cornerstone of the Christian religion rests on that fact. Mary was even told at the grave side, by the messiah Himself; do not hold on to me.
Christ did depart from us and resides in Heaven. But the meal we have before us now is His special sacrament, prescribed by Jesus himself to his followers. This meal is to be taken in remembrance of not only the person of Jesus of Nazareth, but of what he has done for each one of us.
We take this meal remembering that vivid surprise that Mary had at the grave side of Jesus. With this meal let us also anticipate that surprise. Let us, in the manner prescribed in his last meal with his disciples, that this is NOT the end. We are to observe this meal until he returns.
The meal is about personal reflection on the nature of your relationship to Christ. The meal is about reflection of the great deeds done for you by God the father through the resurrection. This is about the grace we can experience shown by Christ and delivered by the Holy Spirit.
As you take the elements, given for you by Jesus who is the Christ, allow Christ to have a renewed place in your life; allow the Holy Spirit to work in and through you. By living of your life in a righteous way, that is an honorable way to remember, to refresh and to live.
AMEN
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